I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of Internet commerce and more specifically to a method, apparatus and article of manufacture to enable consumers to purchase items from Internet merchants with funds drawn from the consumer's checking account.
II. Relevant Art
One of the newest and most rapidly expanding areas of commerce is the use of the Internet to conduct business, or so-called “e-commerce.” Every day, millions of dollars of sales are made over the Internet. Presently, the vast majority of these sales are paid for by credit card. The use of a credit card to pay for goods has the advantages of allowing both customers and merchants to have a convenient and generally reliable form of payment. However, from a consumer's point of view payment by credit card is disadvantageous in that it requires that a consumer first own a credit card, and second, the consumer must often be willing to incur a short term debt at the relatively high interest rate charged by most credit card companies. From a merchant's point of view, payment by credit card is disadvantageous because it often results in higher processing fees than would be charged for cash or check transactions. Accordingly, it would be advantageous for consumers to have the option of paying for Internet purchases by a check drawn from a standard bank checking account.